Young readers log 2 million pages

Gary Moskowitz

NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- The site of students marching down the street

and making a lot of noise can sometimes be something to get nervous

about, but on Friday it was all smiles and good times.

A line of Glenoaks teachers, staff, students and parents paraded down

the boulevard from the school’s campus to nearby Glenoaks Park Friday to

celebrate reading.

Students wore Glenoaks Elementary T-shirts, waved pom poms and

American flags and sang the Glenoaks school song as they walked.

The group then had lunch in the park and paraded back to the school’s

campus.

Glenoaks students were challenged this school year to collectively

read 2 million pages between October and April, and they did it.

Top readers in each class -- students who had read the most pages

during those months -- wore red, white and blue patriotic visors during

the parade.

Third-grader Sofia Kim, 9, was one of the school’s top readers. And

reading is a always a journey, according to Sofia.

“Reading takes me places. Every time you read you go somewhere and

it’s an adventure,” Sofia said.

Nine-year-old Mary Bayandzhyan read about 2,000 pages between October

and April, and said it wasn’t hard to do.

“Reading is fun. My favorite part is getting to know the characters,”

Mary said.

Second-grader Alex Mourdian and first-grader Cathleen Hong were top

readers every month.

Glenoaks Principal Sally Buckley said the event is tied to the

governor’s reading challenge, where schools who read the most are awarded

cash prizes.

Glenoaks was awarded $5,000 last year for its reading efforts, Buckley

said. Award money then goes toward school supplies and programs, Buckley

said.

“Research shows that best way to improve performance is to get them

reading as much as possible. And we encourage their parents to support

them at home,” Buckley said. “The more they read, the better they are

going to do. And parents help by making it a priority in the home, also.”